Max Gottlieb is an aspiring singer-guitarist-songwriter from Philadelphia. In eighth grade he started playing music, and realised that he wanted to do it for the rest of his life. When it came time to come to Israel on a Masa program, Max thought he would be taking a break from his guitar – but that’s not what happened…

So, what made you decide to come to Israel?

In my last year of school, I was totally set on going straight to university and studying music. I went through the entire audition process, and practiced so hard that I got tendonitis in my wrist. I knew I wasn’t ready for music at university, and I didn’t know what to do. But then I heard about Aardvark.

I was curious, and I decided to give it a go. When I first arrived I was just excited to be in a...